In the age of digital transformation, businesses increasingly want telco services on demand with little or no integration. The emergence of 5G standalone (SA) and customer experiences with cloud-native companies like AWS, Equinix and Salesforce are key drivers of this scenario.
The transition is generating pressure for carriers to also alter their approach towards customer experience. Services such as communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) and network APIs are opening up a potential pathway to achieve this, offering a route to customers for rapidly integrating carrier services like software-triggered voice and messaging, device-status checks, location verification and protection measures against SIM-swap fraud.
Collectively, these can act as powerful tools to propel customer experience to the next level. But in the wholesale arena, there’s still much to do to standardise interfaces and integrate digital services to enable easy use.
“Everybody is trying to digitise, but to do it in a way that creates a global proposition across different telcos is challenging,” says Bertold Frech, VP of international strategy, marketing and steering at Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier.
Big slice of the pie
Frech outlines how important doing this is to capture the full potential of 5G, especially as new opportunities like network slicing can be maximised by using APIs. “We’re now seeing a lot of initiatives to move into the API business to leverage the capabilities of 5G networks,” says Frech. “A similar trend can be seen for fixed-line services, where APIs and process digitisation are getting more relevant for telcos.”
Carriers are in the process of harmonising APIs through initiatives such as the GSMA’s Open Gateway and CAMARA Alliance, as well as industry bodies like the MEF – but there is some way still to go to achieve those aims.
In the meantime, a good example of the increased momentum among carriers is the network API venture recently initiated by Deutsche Telekom together with other major operators such as AT&T, Bharti Airtel, Orange, Telefónica, Telstra and Vodafone. Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier will supply network APIs for the venture, but also repurchase them in aggregated form to offer them in the market in combination with the rest of the portfolio.
One way to also move towards a more structured approach is by providing portals for customers to easily access and integrate all the digital services they need. This is a strategy that Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier is following with the recent introduction of its Global Carrier Digital Services Portal.
Frech explains that the company has made a start with services that are less complex to integrate, before expanding functions over time. The initial services include CAMARA network APIs, CPaaS services, mobile-identity services, a numbers universe covering over 140 countries, a workflow automation platform and the Telekom Edge Cloud, with more to come soon. “The idea is to create a one-stop shop for all our digital wholesale services,” says Frech.
Wholesalers can use the white-label portal to brand the digital services portfolio they themselves offer customers. This can aid the spread of such services while the industry moves in parallel to harmonise API standards.
The hard yards
For those buying wholesale services, there are big advantages to a major global telco doing the hard work. They benefit from wide geographical coverage, enhanced business processes and highly effective bundling of digital services. They also don’t have to do all the groundwork themselves, which Frech explains is taxing, requiring a transition to new ways of thinking.
“It’s a hugely different mindset that’s required and needs a lot more software capabilities,” says Frech. He says Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier has overcome this hurdle by working closely with teams within its parent company that focus more on digital technology and training people in this area.
And he believes this will all pay off in the customer experience. “Our digital services in combination with the portal offer more geographical coverage and enhanced business processes, as well as helping our customers to monetise new use cases,” adds Frech. “These advantages allow them to enter into business areas they could not enter before.”
Read Deutsche Telekom's special report, titled Wholesale Redefined, by clicking here.
